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Rachel took a deep breath and opened the car door She entered the sea of kids whispering and gossiping about the fight

"I heard they were fighting over souy was like super hu everywhere"

Rachel listened to the words that filled the air, and it h the doors of the school, she felt like everyone was staring at her She saw a group of cheerleaders standing in the corner near the cafeteria, one pointed at her as she whispered so to the others As she turned down the hallway towards her locker, she could hear the whispers getting louder and louder

Rachel wanted to leave, but knew once she got into her hoo unnoticed She knew if she left school, it would et suspended for cutting She hated this guilty feeling that was filling her up inside

She quickly walked to her locker and into her ho at the kids quizzically Rachel saw hi at her and instantly realized that everyone, even the teachers knew

"What happened to you last night?" Eht but couldn’t find you anywhere Are you ok?"

Rachel looked at her but didn’t kno to respond She trusted Emily, but she knew she couldn’t tell her the whole truth

"Yeah, I’m fine It was a little scary, but here I a manner

"It’s not funny-- you could have been killed I heard this Benji guy is completely crazy," Emily said in a serious voice

"He’s not that bad," Rachel answered quietly, as she looked around to uy"

"Um, he beat up Rob and four other players, Emily replied "He doesn’t seem that nice"

"Well, it wasn’t his fault, they ca up for Benji

"Geez, cal so defensive?" Emily snapped back

Rachel stopped for aShe didn’t knohy she was sticking up for hi that happened between them

"Listen, I don’t want to talk about this anymore, OK," Rachel said as she opened her notebook

"Well, everyone’s talking about it," Euy is? I’ve never seen him around AHS"

"He’s a senior I don’t knohy you haven’t seen hi on between you two anyway? Do you like hiht I thought I did, but now I don’t OK I don’t want to talk about it"

"Fine, I’ll let it go…for now But I want to hear more about this when you’re ready to talk about it"

Rachel hated this She hated being interrogated by her friends and being the source of all the whispers in the school She desperately wanted to disappear

DING DING DING The loud speaker began:

Good Morning AHS students, teachers and faculty This is your principal, Dr McNery speaking Today is a hard day for us here at AHS, after the recent happenings of the Hoet to the bottoht Don’t feel alar under control, and want each of you to know that we have arranged for a school psychologist to join us for the next few days Her name is Dr Joy and all students are welcome to see her at any point in the day We knohat happened can be alar, and ant you to know that we have so students out of their classes today for questioning by the police, but again, this is just standard procedure and do not be alarood day

Rachel sunk down into her seat She had never felt soout of her chest as she sat there hoping that she wouldn’t be called out of class, especially for questioning by the police Could this go on ht Could this ruin e? Her nerves were all over the place and she could not sit still She was tapping her foot on the ground andher pencil up and down, in a rapid motion

Rachel couldn’t believe her "almost" boyfriend could cause such a raucous that the principal needed to hire a school psychologist And this whole fight started because of her, she thought She couldn’t help but feel like she single-handedly traumatized the entire school body

A h the door and went over to Mr Allen’s desk She held a clipboard in front of hi his head Mr Allen looked up fro for her to co," Mr Allen whispered, pointing to the clipboard

Rachel felt her face turn bright red with nervousness She shook her head and looked at the principal’s secretary